The threatening war between the United States and Iran as well as the weakening Iranian currency has caused the popularity of Bitcoin to soar.

Iranian have been historically invested in gold but lately the focus seems to have shifted to the “digital gold”, Bitcoin (BTC).

Trump Threat To Iran

In a tweet on Sunday, the United States president, Donald Trump, said :

“If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!”

That bold statement from the president made a lot of Iranians fear that they might be on the verge of a full blown war with the United States.

Double Trading Volumes In Two Years

Although Trump is against any direct military confrontation with Iran, it appears that US-Iran relationship has been crippled. This events coincidentally happen at the same the transaction volumes of Bitcoin reach amounts not seen in Iran in almost two years.

It was reported at 45 billion Iranian rial (appx. 1.35 million dollars) was traded on LocalBitcoins, a P2P crypto exchange platform. This volumes have not been seen since January 2018, when BTC reached its all time high of $20,000.

This fresh increase in adoption and the popularity of Bitcoin in Iran is due to Iran's large inflation rate and the current geopolitical setbacks. As reported by Iranian Statistical Center (ISC), the inflation rate in Iran was over 50% in April.

Bitcoin, The New Gold

Iranians now seek a way to hedge their assets amidst their national currency weakening.

“If you are an Iranian and you want to protect some of your wealth, or you might have to leave Iran and you are worried. In the old days, you would buy gold – Bitcoin is the new gold.”

Iran, in January, launched its own state backed digital asset despite its very stringent policies on cryptocurrency.

bitcoin price paragraph =

Bitcoin’s price is $9,658.46 BTC/USD exchange rate today. The real-time BTC market cap of $177.69 Billion currently ranks #1 with a chart dominance at 62.37%, daily trading volume of $2.87 Billion and live coin value change of BTC0.21 in the last 24 hours.

Osahon Okodugha is a blockchain and financial writer based in Lagos, he is also a published writer with years of experience. He has degrees from the University of Ghana, Legon, and the University of Lagos.

[Alert] Use the author's self-conducted information at your own risk, do you own research, never invest more than you are willing to lose.

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